Heonia, how the hell do you pronounce that one!? Pronunciation confusion aside, Heonia are a relatively new act from France. They are a female-fronted band with their style being symphonic metal blended in with some progressive and death metal touches. In fact they remind me quite a bit of To-Mera minus the jazz parts and some of the wilder riffs. They also remind me of the latest Epica album..

At over an hour in length Winsome Scar is a massive slab of an album, which admittedly is very hard to digest. Don't get me wrong I enjoy this kind of thing but I think Heonia overplayed their hand in releasing such a long album for a debut, not to mention the fact that a lot of the tracks blur into one. However in the band's defense they are highly talented musicians with a keen ear for melodies and almost excellent musicianship. If they were to tighten things up ever so slightly and drop around 15 minutes, the album would have been a lot better. I definitely think they have the potential to release a good, if not great album in the future.

All in all if you're looking for something a little more involving than your average Nightwish clone I'd certainly recommend checking out Winsome Scar. While I think the album is a little too long and meandering, it is never bad and in fact actually quite good. I certainly wouldn't mind hearing from Heonia again, A good effort.